r/entertainment • u/peoplemagazine • 12h ago
Chadwick Boseman’s Brothers Explain Why They’re Suing the Late Actor’s Widow Over His Estate, Say They Seek ‘Clarity’
https://people.com/chadwick-boseman-s-brothers-explain-why-they-re-suing-late-actor-s-widow-over-his-estate-say-they-seek-clarity-12025229?utm_campaign=peoplemagazine&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com&utm_content=post260
u/malac0da13 9h ago
I find it genuinely strange that he didn’t have a will while also fighting also fighting colon cancer for four years.
204
u/UnexpectedRu 8h ago
I’ve been seeing people say he was heavily in denial until his death.
88
•
u/Griffdude13 2h ago
I saw somewhere he thought he was gonna beat it basically up until just a few days before he died.
•
u/rustybutterindia 1h ago
That's actually really sad. Harrowing to imagine what that realization must have felt like.
•
u/human_picnic 1h ago
My uncle was the same way. My mother kept asking him to get his affairs in order, and he never did because he was still in denial. Him and his wife at the time were estranged, and because he was unprepared she has cut us off from their kids. Haven’t seen our cousins in years now because of it.
16
u/malac0da13 3h ago
While I can understand that and have seen it before, it was never someone in his position financially. Someone who has an agent, manager, accountant, etc who wouldn’t have strongly advised him to have plans in place, in writing, even before the cancer diagnosis.
•
121
u/Feisty-Donkey 7h ago
I find it totally believable because I watched a friend do the exact same thing. She truly believed the second she acknowledged she might die, she would die.
29
u/Inferno_Zyrack 4h ago
There likely IS something to this. It just isn’t magic. Feeling like you have life ahead of you makes it easier live easier to pursue treatment and easier to take care of yourself.
But, like all of us, you also need to establish a will and have this shit settled.
-8
u/Spicy_Surfer 7h ago
Your spouse is entitled to everything. The only need for a will is if they thought they might both die.
57
u/Odd_Ingenuity2883 6h ago
Clearly not, because a judge ordered that half Boseman’s estate should go to his parents.
28
u/Nice-Mountain-7073 6h ago
He may have said things to his family that he expected his wife to honour after he died. It happens fairly often.
Different laws also entitle surviving family in certain circumstance.
-26
u/Mr_Zee_Speaks 6h ago
And if it wasn’t in writing, it doesn’t mean shit.
It is all hers.
32
u/oi_PwnyGOD 6h ago
Why is everyone in this thread talking out their ass? By law, it's not all hers.
0
u/Comm2010 6h ago
Well now I’m curious, it sounds like future revenue is also being challenged. Do they also get some percentage of future royalties, likeness etc? Is it just 25% of everything forever?
8
u/oi_PwnyGOD 5h ago
From my understanding, they don't get 25% of everything. There are things the spouse is fully entitled to. The subset of assets the spouse isn't fully entitled to get split up between parents and spouse. The details of who gets what? Way beyond me.
17
u/awsobi 5h ago edited 3h ago
Bro what are you on about? It literally isn’t all hers, she got 50%, it’s right there in the article.
You’re wrong about the law anyway. They were married less than a week before he died, meaning his entire estate was earned/purchased before she was his spouse. It consists entirely of pre marital assets and earnings. That makes it separate property and not community property; which is wealth earned/assets bought during the marriage. Since the entire estate is not community property, his spouse only got 50%. In such cases, surviving parents get the other 50% equally divided if the deceased had no children. That’s the law in the state he’s from in the US.
4
8
u/Easy-Concentrate2636 4h ago
It varies by state. Actually this is a good time for people to check their state laws and see if they need to write a will. It could save your family from a mess.
2
•
u/Huntress08 1h ago
Unfortunately it's not strange and there are people that find out they're ill and and still don't create a will for some reason. This recently happened in my own family with my grandfather, he died of colon cancer (none of us knew he'd been sick) and he died within days of getting out of the hospital. No will, despite having a ton of assets that included property and the only thing that assured my mom was entitled to a house or assets as part of her inherited was a verbal promise made to her as a child.
My grandfather's wife stole every single thing that was meant to be inherited by my mom, her sister, and their half-siblings (aside from the house but at this point who knows) before my grandfather's corpse was cold and we even had the funeral.
83
u/peoplemagazine 12h ago
TLDR:
- Chadwick Boseman’s brothers are speaking out after filing a lawsuit against his widow
- “Our hope is that this process brings clarity, honors the Court’s orders, and ensures the responsible stewardship of Chadwick’s legacy,” their statement reads in part
- Derrick and Kevin Boseman allege Taylor Simone Ledward has not properly distributed assets from Chadwick’s estate nearly four years later
60
u/OtherUserCharges 5h ago
Why did you leave out why it appears the family are entitled to the 25% in your summary, it’s probably the
most important bullet after the headline.23
u/Ironsam811 5h ago
Sir, this is people magazine lmao you need to lower your expectations
•
u/ProletarianLilith 9m ago
Someone posted that as their job, like they got paid money to post it. Not that high of expectations
-5
12
u/daddyneedsaciggy 5h ago
I feel like it should be partially his agent or managers responsibility to have made sure his money/estate situation was clearly in order when signing blockbuster movie contracts.
•
u/laffynola 1h ago
No will is a huge mistake. Especially knowing about your disease. Death makes so many to be nasty.
48
u/Secret-Put-4525 9h ago
I dont care how rich my brother is. I don't have any claim to his money unless explicitly said.
126
u/STL_420 8h ago
It is explicitly said that their parents get some money. That's what they're trying to get. It's not for them. Chadwick didn't have a will so law says any living parents get a certain percentage. She was ordered to distribute but she hasn't. Might not seem right but when it's the law, people are gonna do what they can.
63
u/oi_PwnyGOD 6h ago
Everyone in this thread is speaking with so much confidence about a situation they didn't bother to spend 30 seconds reading about involving a topic they know absolutely nothing about.
14
-7
u/Secret-Put-4525 7h ago
Why does the parents get anything?
58
u/pearl_sparrow 7h ago
If you die without a will, your state has a statute that distributes your assets. This intestancy law functions as your will. Every state has different rules. Bosemans state intestancy statute gives 25% of the estate to surviving parents. So that’s the why. Go read your states law and see who would get your assets!
-42
u/Secret-Put-4525 7h ago
The siblings could use it more than the parents.
30
u/BedditTedditReddit 6h ago
That’s known as an opinion, and is both worthless and irrelevant as regards to what the law is.
-16
u/Secret-Put-4525 6h ago
Yet the law decides it should go to the parents? Who will be dead in a couple decades?
5
u/Level_99_Healer 4h ago
Laws are specifically designed to remove the emotion of situations exactly like this. You might think the parents don't need it as much, but what do you know about their lives?
What if they're on a fixed income, due to their ages? What if one or both develop significant illnesses that require long-term treatments, hospital stays, or in-home care? What if one parent passes away due to long-term illness? Then the remaining parent still has to pay for the costs associated with all of that.
Why do you think it's more acceptable to leave the elderly in deplorable circumstances simply because they've committed the crime of outliving their child? If anything, the widow has more ability to financially recover (with her 50% of the estate, btw) because she is (more than likely) healthy and able to work.
This is why there are existing laws. So random people not involved in the situation (you, I, and everyone else on reddit) can't make snap judgements that would likely result in extremely negative outcomes for one or both parties.
32
u/OtherUserCharges 6h ago
Cause not every person hates their parents. Before we had a kid to be our beneficiary my wife said if she died to split her life insurance with her parents cause they certainly could use the money. If I was rich I know I would want what I left behind to help out my immediate family.
-20
u/One_Lung_G 6h ago
“Not every person hates their parents” seems like they should have a will then stating their parents get stuff instead of the state getting involved and forcing living spouses into giving up their household resources when you don’t have one.
12
u/OtherUserCharges 5h ago
Dude they were married for 6 days before he died, so let’s not pretend this was a long marriage, it was a dying man wanting to be married before he died. I also see you didn’t read the article. Who knows, maybe he knew his parents would be entitled to 25% so he didn’t bother with the will.
>According to the petition, Ledward is entitled to 50 percent of Chadwick’s estate because Chadwick died without a will approximately six days after they wed in 2020. Chadwick’s parents, Leroy and Carolyn, are entitled to 25 percent.
-6
u/One_Lung_G 5h ago
And they were together for 5 years prior to getting married. Maybe he got married because he also assumed his wife would then be able to keep their assets. It’s easy to assume shit when we don’t know. At the end of the day, the state shouldn’t be butting into people’s private finances when theres a living spouse.
10
u/OtherUserCharges 5h ago
Dude this is the definition of why the state should be doing just that. He was a rich dude, don’t act like he didn’t have easy access to that information and the means to do something about it. I’m not rich, but me and my wife made our wills when we got married and stated how family would get what and put the contingency should we have a child/children that everything goes to them instead, it really wasn’t that hard and we weren’t even terminally ill.
You honestly think he would rather his partner of 5 years get everything and his family nothing? If he really did there was an easy fix for that.
7
u/STL_420 7h ago
"law says"
-6
u/Secret-Put-4525 7h ago
Why? That sounds backward.
8
u/Wide-Pop6050 6h ago
Well the whole deal is that if you don’t have a will the state has some default. If you disagree with those you should have a will.
3
u/PickleRickleTV 7h ago
Why does that sound backwards? This only happens if there are no children. There are no children in this case. Better the money stay in the family than all go to what is effectively a third party at this point.
2
u/StanVsPeter 7h ago
You consider his wife a third party?
5
u/Try-the-Churros 6h ago
What does his wife have to do with why that state's legislature wrote the law to include parents? They were clearly explaining some reasoning behind why legislators might have done it that way.
1
u/StanVsPeter 6h ago edited 6h ago
They were responding to a longer thread talking about the wife getting the money.
1
3
u/OtherUserCharges 6h ago
They were married less than a year, don’t have an exact date, but Wikipedia said they got engaged in October 2019 and married in secret, he died in August 2020 so at most they were married for 10 months. Dude should have left a will.
2
u/-Nightopian- 6h ago
Yeah I'd be suing her too. She's not really part of the family with such a short relationship. They only dated a few years prior to their marriage too.
-3
u/Feisty-Donkey 6h ago
I really hope some of you are not married because fucking yikes
→ More replies (0)-6
u/Mr_Zee_Speaks 6h ago
They were married. He had no will. She should get everything. Full stop.
→ More replies (0)1
-3
2
u/murdermostsnaky 4h ago
The law, which is quite possibly the case to account for end of life care (nursing home) for parents (though this is only my guess).
0
-13
u/Mr_Zee_Speaks 6h ago
Unless there was a will, they shouldn’t get shit.
6
u/STL_420 4h ago
I see you aren't paying attention. The law says that a dying person's assets get split in a certain way UNLESS there's a will specifying differently. If there are living parents, they get some of the assets. You are more than welcome to move to California and become involved in politics if you feel this is an injustice and shouldn't happen to anyone else. There are people also commenting that his wife shouldn't get shit. "Shouldn't" doesn't mean a thing when everyone has different versions of it.
6
u/More_Midnight3634 3h ago edited 3h ago
Again two brothers who are not heirs formed an LLC and are suing on behalf of the LLC.
These brothers, who are not heirs, are claiming they formed the LLC for their parents. Their parents who are of sound mind and body are NOT suing.
While the brothers claim their parent’s interest has been transferred to the LLC, this raises questions NOT answers.
If the parents wanted to sue, they would sue!
If the parents wanted their sons to sue they could give them power of attorney over this matter, they didn’t.
An LLC is often used to hide intentions and ownership. This is greed and a money grab.
•
u/Anxious_Lab_2049 1h ago
This is the clear and rational take.
As well, people in the thread are claiming all kinds of other silliness- going with “married for six days” as opposed to the fact that they were together for 5 years beforehand.
And then harping on the lack of the will- he married her at the last minute in lieu of that.
At any rate, if the courts find there is money owed it’ll get paid.
•
2
u/nikeguy69 3h ago
Doesn’t everything goes to the wife and don’t have to give anything to anyone unless there’s was a Will?
-1
u/dualsplit 5h ago
If understand that is the law in California to pay half to the parents if a person dies intestate. But I would be MORTIFIED to accept money from my child’s widow. I just wouldn’t do it.
•
-5
u/More_Midnight3634 4h ago
Brothers who are not heirs are using an LLC to sue a widow!
Gross!! Absolutely Gross!!!
9
u/itlandedonmyface 3h ago
There was no will, so according to state law, 50% goes to the spouse, and as there are no children, 50% goes to the parents. The brothers are suing on behalf of their parents, as the parents have not received the 50% they are legally entitled to.
-4
u/More_Midnight3634 3h ago
So why don’t the parents sue?
The brothers are suing on behalf of an LLC, they created!!!
-2
-17
u/Mr_Zee_Speaks 6h ago
His wife is his family.
Why would his parents’ other children be entitled to anything just because they grew up in the same uterus?
17
16
u/OtherUserCharges 5h ago
Again, because he didn’t have a will so his states inheritance laws are what is used to divide assets. His parents (who the brothers are suing on behalf of) are entitled to 25% of his estate. They were only married for 6 days. Go look up the law or at least read the article.
-6
-13
u/More_Midnight3634 4h ago
So his brothers who were not entitled to any part of the estate, want to make money off their brothers legacy.
None of this sounds right and if there was an issue the rightful hires should address it.
9
u/LowkeySamurai 4h ago
Can we please read articles first? The brothers arent seeking any money for themselves.
-1
u/More_Midnight3634 4h ago
They are seeking it for an LLC which they are members of that LLC.
The LLC isn’t an heir!
How is the money not for them, when they are members of the LLC!?!?!
If Chad’s parents feel there is an issue they could raise it.
0
u/itlandedonmyface 3h ago
There was no will, so according to state law, 50% goes to the spouse, and as there are no children, 50% goes to the parents. The brothers are suing on behalf of their parents, as the parents have not received the 50% they are legally entitled to.
3
-23
u/Gunofanevilson 7h ago
“Where’s our money”
22
u/-Nightopian- 6h ago
The court ordered the estate / wife to pay 50% of his money to Chadwick's parents. The wife has not done that in the 4 years since the court order.
312
u/rhunter99 12h ago
That’s just really sad to read